2.2.16

Part of the wonder that is The Simpsons is its ability to keep surprising me year after year, as I notice new jokes in episodes I've watched literally hundreds of times. Here's an example that happ ened to me last year, from 'Homer and Apu'.Kent Brockman: Good Evening, here's an update from last week's nursing home expose: Geezers in Freezers. It turns out the rest home was adequately heated - the footage you saw was of a fur storage facility. We've also been told to apologize for using the term 'Geezers'."Now - coming up next: The case of the cantankerous old geezer!"

For years I thought the entirety of the joke was that Kent Brockman immediately went back to using the word 'Geezer' after apologizing for doing so, but during my six hundredth or so viewing, I finally realized that the joke was this - After finding out that they were going to have to apologize because an elderly viewer complained about his language, Kent Brockman (and the Bite Back team) decided that their next story should be an attack piece - on the complainer.

How did I not notice that for so long? Probably too busy laughing at Harry Shearer's reading of the word 'geezer', I'd expect.

Here's the new one!So, who sold Homer that snow plow from the episode 'Mr. Plow'? A simple piece of trivia that anyone should remember, if only because of the following exchange-Homer: Mr Plow! That name again is Mr. Plow!Caller: Hello, I'm calling from delinquent accounts at Kumatsu Motors.Homer: Oh, you want the Mr. Plow who plows driveways - this is Tony Plow, you know, from Leave it to Beaver? (listens) Yeah, they were gay.

Quite memorable - but here's the thing I didn't notice for literally decades-Kumatsu was also the company that bought up all of Powell Motors' assets when 'The Homer' drove them into bankruptcy!

Which means, considering the time elapsed between the two episodes, the plow Homer purchased was presumably a rebranded Powell Motors vehicle!

Oh, the Simpsons, those first five years will never cease to amaze me.